Syria: Opposition figures sentenced to three years in jail

Prominent Syrian opposition figures Michel Kilo and Mahmud Issa were sentenced to three years in prison on Sunday for "weakening national sentiment",

Prominent Syrian opposition figures Michel Kilo and Mahmud Issa were sentenced to three years in prison on Sunday for "weakening national sentiment", according to a Syrian human rights group.

According to AFP, they are the latest dissidents to be jailed in recent weeks in a crackdown by the regime. "Michel Kilo and Mahmud Issa were sentenced to three years for weakening national sentiment," Ammar Qorabi, head of the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria, told AFP.

According to the BBC, Kilo is a veteran democracy activist and one of the country's leading writers. Issa is a translator and former political prisoner who has already spent eight years in jail.

The two were detained one year ago along with eight other democracy supporters after they signed a declaration calling for reform of relations between Syria and Lebanon. Two other activists, Sleiman Shummar and Khalil Hussein, were sentenced in absentia to 10 years in jail for weakening national sentiment and inciting a foreign country to attack Syria, Qorabi conveyed.

Last Thursday, Kamal Labwani was jailed for 12 years by a Damascus court. Labwani was convicted of having "contacts with a foreign country aimed at encouraging it to attack Syria."